What's This?

The Strength & Fitness Newsletter is a weekly email newsletter which summarises the things added to Straight to the Bar (as well as a few gems from the archives). Absolutely free.

btw, I’d love to hear your feedback – both on the individual items and the newsletters themselves. Drop a comment below the relevant issue, or swing by Twitter ( I’m @scottbird ).

cheers,

Scott

Ready To Learn Even More?

I love learning new skills, and the many seminars & workshops available are a great way to do that. If you’re looking for a specific type of workshop nearby, check out the ones on Dragon Door. Great mix of kettlebell and calisthenics-based offerings.

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Podcasts

I listen to an ever-changing pool of podcasts, discussing the many aspects of training and nutrition possible. Most recently :
FoundMyFitness (Dr Matthew Walker on Sleep)

Over to you. Any you’d recommend?

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Strength Training on Instagram

It’s fair to say that we’ve checked out quite a few images over the years – on Flickr & Smugmug in particular.

A friend of mine just pointed me to Chris Stanciu ‘s Instagram feed, which contains a great mix of nutrition and workout images :

instagram.com/officialgainsthetics.

NB : if you’d like to share your own images, just add them to one of the sites noted above and send us a link.

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Strength Training on Facebook

I suspect you love talking about strength training constantly (certainly the case here), and you’re always on the lookout for places to do that. Comments on various sites, forums as well as various in-person communities.

Online, I gravitate toward both Twitter and Facebook. In addition to the SttB offerings, here’s another one you may wish to check out :

Garage Gym Reviews (Cooper Mitchell’s page)

We’ve noted a few of his videos in the past, and they’re great for diving in deep on a particular type of equipment. Nice one.

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Twitter Lists

I use Twitter for a number of things, as I’m sure everyone else here does. To talk about strength training, nutrition and many other topics. Works well.

To make this a little easier – and so people can dive right in to the topics that interest them – I use Twitter’s ‘List‘ functionality quite a bit. There’s a full list of them here :

https://twitter.com/scottbird/lists

Whatever you’re in to, it’s all there.

NB : the above lists are always being fine-tuned. If you know of someone who tweets regularly about a particular subject and should be on one of them, let me know.

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Other (Daily) Newsletters You Might Like

Finally, for a daily dose of tangentially-related information – check out the following. All are compiled daily, and cover the following topics :

Aging & Longevity (living for a very, very long time)
Electric Cars in Australia (great way to help tackle air-pollution)
Better Sleep Nightly (my favourite form of recovery)

And yes, they’re absolutely free.

Bruce Lee : The Art of Expressing the Human Body (Bruce Lee & John Little)

If you’ve ever watched a Bruce Lee film and marveled at his strength, speed, agility, endurance, flexibility or muscularity, this book should take pride of place in your collection. Unlike many other writings covering everything from Lee’s training methods to nutrition, this book is based not on the recollections of people around him; but on Lee’s own notes. Brilliant.

Definitely worthy of a place on the fitness shelf.

Bruce Lee : The Art of Expressing the Human Body.

Monday, 2 Aug 2010

This Week on Straight to the Bar

I’m constantly amazed at just how much my training is influenced by the people on this site. Whether you’re looking for a new piece of equipment, an unusual exercise variation or just an idea of how others approach things, you’ll enjoy these :

Giving it Away II
Scott Andrew Bird
We first looked at the idea of donating your used strength-training equipment more than a year ago, and a lot of people shared stories of how they did just that. Thank you all, sincerely.
30 Jul 2010 – Pull-up Challenge
Adam Stoffa
The road to a consistent 25 pull-ups. Good stuff.

Ready to add your own opinion, workout log or training article? Just head over to the Forums, Training Logs, or swing by the Article Submissions page. They’re fantastic ways to share your ideas.

NB : if you enjoy the articles, show the authors your appreciation by voting (using the Like, Digg and Retweet icons). Cheers.

Video : Chad Kovach – Grip Feats

Here’s a gathering of pinching, squeezing and gripping to show just how much can be achieved in a short time.
Nice work Chad.

Keen to Try : WristBall

WristBall.

Recently Ryan noted armwrestler Scott Latella‘s new site – StrongerWrist. Excellent.
Many great things on the site (as well as a number which will be arriving shortly), including the WristBall. Very keen to try one out.

Coming Events

Parts List.

Twitterchat 77 – DIY Training Equipment

Over the years this site’s looked at the idea of making your own gym gear from a number of angles. Everything from the ‘how to make a …‘ to the tools and techniques involved.
This week we’ll be discussing all of these aspects of DIY Training Equipment, for anything used in your workouts. Indoor, outdoor; whatever it is – if it can be home-made, we’ll discuss how. Fantastic.

Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : DIY Training Equipment
When : Wed Aug 4, 9pm EDT (1am UTC)
How : Include #sbgym in your tweets.
To see when it’s on in your timezone, head over to the twitterchat calendar.
See you there.
NB : If you’d like to be a guest on a future twitterchat, let me know. It’s great to hear how other people are training.

Daniel Ng.

Quick update on last week’s twitterchat : Thanks once again to Daniel Ng (@daniel_hautjobb) and everyone else who took part in the discussion on Photographing Strength Athletes. Some superb ideas in there.
Thanks also to everyone who added photos to the SttB Flickr Group (and to those that are still adding them). Greatly appreciated; there are some superb shots in there. And if you haven’t added your images yet? They’re all welcome. Swing by.
For those who missed out on the conversation, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you take video or still photos at strength competitions? How do you keep track of the athletes, events, weights and so on?

Checking Out : The Sling Shot

The Sling Shot.

Mark Bell‘s Sling Shot is now available. Looks great.

Exercise of the Week : Barbell Hack Squats

These are superb. Although the Hack Squat often referred to makes use of a simple machine, I much prefer the barbell version.
The basic version is shown below; there are certainly plenty of variations. Different bars, off-centred weights, bands and so on. Great exercise.